Before sunrise reached the lower slopes of the Gonasika Hills in Odisha’s Keonjhar district, Parmedhenu Juang was already in his field. It was early monsoon in June as the 54-year-old farmer bent over a patch of soil and let ragi fall through his fingers, examining the colour, weight and shape of the grain.
“Desi bihana are like living beings,” said Juang, referring to “traditional seeds” in Odia. “If they are cared for, they stay strong. If they are neglected, they slowly lose themselves.”
In Iruda village, at least three generations of Juang’s family, who are one of Odisha’s Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups, have preserved traditional seeds such as finger millets, sorghum, little millet, pearl millet, black gram, cowpeas, green gram and paddy.
Once cultivated for food by the Adivasis in the region, many of these seeds are now disappearing.
The Green Revolution transformed India’s agricultural system, focusing on high-yielding hybrid seeds and chemical-intensive monocropping, such as wheat and rice. Diverse seeds, especially of crops grown outside government procurement, were sidelined.
The varieties Adivasi communities preserve have been shaped over generations by local rainfall, altitude, soil and food culture.
Some are like para dhan, a type of paddy suited for water scarcity since it is ready to harvest in 60 days. These varieties can survive poor soil and carry flavours that farmers say no market seeds grain can reproduce.
Others like ratanchudi, a short-duration paddy variety, and laiseri, which has a longer 120-day harvest cycle, have vanished, say Adivasi farmers.
This has meant the loss of a sustainable source of food as well as a cultural aspect of their identity and life, said Adivasi communities in Odisha’s Keonjhar, Mayurbhanj, Rayagada and Koraput districts during conversations in between May and August last year.
Migrating seeds, changing homes
Juang’s ancestors once cultivated millets, pulses, paddy and tubers across hill slopes nearly 3,000 feet above sea level in the Gonasika mountain range, according to oral tradition and stories passed down by community elders. Finger millet grown in the hill slopes looked and tasted different, said Juang. “The grains were bigger and sweeter,” he said. “Even after cooking, the aroma was intense.”
When Juang Adivasi families gradually moved to the foothills, the seeds travelled with them, but something changed. “The same seed does not behave the same way in every soil,” said Juang. “It was shaped by a specific place for generations. When we moved it, something changed inside it.”
Migrating seeds struggle like humans, said Juang, pointing to a handful of pearl millets, which farmers of the Juang community grow as food. “Seeds also migrate with us and struggle to thrive in an alien environment.”
This belief shapes how the Juang farmers handle seeds for preservation. Only grain from healthy plants are selected for storage. The seeds are carefully dried, in partial shade. They are also touched, examined and remembered – instead of written information, Juang Adivasi farmers rely on oral knowledge to recognise seeds by colour, grain size, shape, weight, taste and aroma.
“If a seed is treated carelessly, it weakens,” said Juang. “If it is respected, it feeds many seasons.”
In neighbouring Mayurbhanj district, seed preservation by Santal households is being affected by the changing architecture of homes as mud houses are replaced by concrete and cement buildings. Traditionally, millet, pulses and paddy seeds were stored in bamboo baskets, earthen pots and handmade containers lined with ash and dried neem leaves.
Subasa Mohanta, a 54-year-old Santal farmer from Goili village in Jashipur block, said mud houses kept seeds cool even in summer. “Inside cement houses, they heat up quickly and insects arrive sooner,” she said.
Mohanta is known as mandia maa, or millet mother, for conserving traditional varieties of millets. She now opens stored seeds frequently to inspect them. “Earlier, I trusted our kutcha house to protect the seed,” said Mohanta. “Now I must constantly keep watch in the pucca house.”
After finger millets are harvested between October and December, Mohanta exchanges seeds with the women of her neighbouring homes. Traditionally, farmers exchange seeds to get other varieties. “A handful is enough,” said Mohanta. “A seed must keep moving, otherwise it dies in storage.”
Cultural heritage
In southern Odisha, traditional grains are inseparable from the way of life of the Paroja Adivasi communities in Koraput, Rayagada and Malkangiri districts.
Abhiram Jhodia, a farmer from Siriguda village of Kashipur block in Rayagada district, said Adivasi festivals will have no meaning without their traditional produce. “Seeds are present wherever our people gather,” said Jhodia. “In festivals, in songs, in what we cook together.”
In summer, before the annual Chait Parab celebration honouring nature, families prepare mandia pej, a porridge made from finger millet, rice and maize. “It cools the body before dhemsa,” said Abhiram, referring to the Paroja community’s traditional dance. “Without it, we do not have the strength for dhemsa.” Seeds and traditional produce are crucial to festivals and cultural rituals, said Abhiram. “Food gives them meaning.”
Like Abhiram, Mohanta said that if seeds vanish, so do the traditional recipes and the stories around that food. Her husband, Suresh Chandra Mohanta, said seeds are a living link to their ancestors. “When we hold our traditional seeds, it feels as if our elders are still with us.”
Climate resilience
Odisha’s heirloom seeds have survived because Adivasi farmers have protected them outside formal systems, in kitchens, granaries, earthen pots, bamboo bins and through farmer-to-farmer seasonal exchange. No official seed vault could preserve diverse varieties and their cultural ties.
Suresh Chandra Mohanta said that after harvest, the seed is hard and strong. But while it is stored in the granary, it slowly changes. “It becomes quiet like a sleeping child,” he said.
The seed wakes with the rains and then gives life anew. “Its journey is like human life, from the mother’s womb to youth and adulthood under the care of parents,” said Mohanta. “In the same way, our forefathers protected these seeds and handed them to us. A company selling hybrid seeds will never understand this bond.”
These seed varieties are crucial in building food and climate resilience among Odisha’s Adivasi communities. “Our seeds thrive in our land,” said Juang. “When the rains are late or too little, they still grow and give us food. Sometimes the harvest is small, but it is enough for our family.”
All photographs by Abhijit Mohanty.
Abhijit Mohanty is a Bhubaneswar-based independent journalist who reports on sustainable food, livelihood, women’s leadership and climate change with a special focus on Adivasi and marginalised Indian communities.
April 26 is International Seeds Day.
